I found something last night that promises to be a clue to the mystery of art.

"It is not only Christians who can paint with beauty, nor for that matter only Christians who can love or who have creative stirrings. Even though the image is now contorted, people are made in the image of God. This is who people are, whether or not they know or acknowledge it. God is the great Creator, and part of the unique manishness of man, as made in man's image, is creativity. Thus, man as man paints, shows creativity in science and engineering, and so on. Such activity does not require a special impulse from God, and it does not mean that people are not alienated from God and do not need the work of Christ to return to God. It does mean that man as man, in contrast to non-man, is creative. A person's world view almost always shows through in his creative output, however, and thus the marks on the things he creates will be different. This is so in all fields - for example, in the art of the Renaissance compared to that of the Reformation, or in the direction man's creative stirrings in science will assume, and whether and how the stirring will continue. In the case of the Reformation the art showed the good marks of its biblical base." -Francis A. Schaeffer, from How Should We Then Live?

I was wondering last night why different people have such unique and different tastes in art. One fellow loves rap music, another Bach, and another both. This woman likes Victorian architecture, and that kid over there likes shiny, modern skyscrapers, while another guy you meet on the bus is obsessed with tepees and straw-bale houses.

It must be that, just as Bach, Bernstein, and Eminem create different works of art because of their different world views, so too the consumers and patrons of art appreciate different works of art for the same reason: they have different world views. This seems to be true in my own life, for although I can tolerate and appreciate many forms of creativity, there is some art that seems to be tailor-made to suit my taste. Another piece of the puzzle falls in place....


In other news, snow is falling thickly in Saskatoon, and by night one can see millions of God-damned coloured-lights and idols strewn on the neighbours' homes and yards. It's beginning to feel a lot like...you know what.